Video Game Emulators

Here you will find all the best video game emulators on a single page! Convenient, eh? I offer Windows & Android emulators for direct download. Apple users, don't fret! I at least point you in the right direction to download emulators.

The great Snes9x that we all know and love for the PC had been ported to Android, instantly becoming the best Android SNES emulator! Although personally, I'm still using Yongzh's SNES emu just because I like the universal GUI across all his releases.
*Particularly, if you want to transfer SRM/SAV save files from PC to Android or vice versa, they don't work on Snes9x EX. Yongzh's emulators, however, do work with them.
*Don't have access to the Play Store? You can download Snes9x EX here.

The .EMU series of emulators covers Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, NeoGeo, NES, Genesis (MD), Saturn, and TurboGrafx16 (PCE). They're great emulators with lots of features. I recommend enabling vibration on button press. Snes9x EX above is by the same people.
*Don't have access to the Play Store? You can download these emulators from the homepage.

You might have come across MAME4Droid in the Android market. It's a good emulator, but Final Burn Alpha is way better! It has great performance. Particularly, I've tested my Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom/ Shadow Over Mystara ROMs with both of them and they play fine.

The fastest and most compatible Nintendo DS emulator! The catch is that it has a pretty hefty price of $8 US. If you refuse to pay and you want a free emulator, there's nds4droid. Although DraStic is far superior over nds4droid.

This is a mass system emulator with support for PS1, SNES, NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Arcade (MAME), NeoGeo Pocket Color, Virtual Boy, Genesis (plus Sega CD), SMS, PC Engine/TurboGrafx16 (plus CD), Wonderswan Color, Nintendo DS, Atari Lynx, and arcade (MAME). What's really awesome is that RetroArch supports several systems not supported in the other emulators. Even the Game Gear emulation is accurate (other emulators crop the screen). However its GUI is not very user friendly and I've found that some games aren't supported.
• The PS1 emulator requires the BIOS.
• For TG16-CD games, make sure the BIOS is called “syscard3.pce” (if it isn't already).
• For Sega CD games, rename the BIOS files to “bios_CD_E.bin” (Europe), “bios_CD_U.bin” (US), and “bios_CD_J.bin” (Japan).
• If your Sega CD/TG16-CD game has MP3 tracks, you need to convert them to WAV and edit the CUE sheet to change the tracks to WAV. I explain how to do this here.
• All BIOS files for PS1, TG16-CD, and Sega CD need to be placed in the main root folder of your ROMs/ISOs (you can set the folder in config).
*Don't have access to the Play Store? You can download Retroarch here.

Yongzh is kind of the father of Android video game emulation by being the first to release the first set of emulators for Android. Yongzh's emulators were removed from the market so you can only grab them online - or right there! Despite their age, these emulators still run very well and in some cases considered better than newer emulators. My Yongzh Bundle contains the following:

Unfortunately Apple is a big-time copyright NAZI and they do not allow video game emulators in their App Store. Emulators do exist for Apple products, but you must perform a jailbreak to gain access to them. Fortunately there are a few RPG classics you can play without jailbreaking. They're available legit in the App Store for around $3-16 US each. Those RPGs are:

This emulator is generally considered to be the #1 for N64. Unlike other emulators, Project64 already conveniently comes bundled with the best plug-ins. That means it's ready to use at peak capacity right out of the box!
*Note: My download of Project 64 does not contain malware, unlike the download on the official site.

Snes9x has tons of awesome screen filters, supports Game Genie/Action Replay cheats, can capture SPC music, can take screen shots, capture save states with multiple slots, supports Super FX, record AVI movies, and more. It's easy to use, it runs great on whatever speed your computer is, and it has such neat features. In that aspect, it's the #1 SNES emulator! This is the 64-bit version. If you're not sure if you have 64-bit or 32-bit Windows, click here for directions. If you have 32-bit, download the version below.
*If upon opening Snes9x you get a missing ddx9_38.dll error, download the latest version of DirectX.

ZSNES is similar to Snes9x in terms of quality and features. I think Snes9x is the better emulator, but other people swear by ZSNES. I offer it here to give you a different option. Who knows, you might like it better than Snes9x.

Nestopia has tons of awesome screen filters, supports Game Genie/Action Replay cheats, can take screen shots, capture save states, and more. It's easy to use and runs great on whatever speed your computer is. It's an excellent NES emulator! It offers better features than FCEUX.

DeSmuME is a freeware emulator for the Nintendo DS created by YopYop156. DeSmuME is also known as YopYop DS. It's an excellent emulator with the usual bundle of features we expect from a video game emulator. It especially offers some good options for the display, since the DS has the double screen thing going on. Its game compatibility is not great, but adequate. It at least runs Final Fantasy IV DS perfectly. This is the 64-bit version. If you're not sure if you have 64-bit or 32-bit Windows, click here for directions. If you have 32-bit, download the version below.

Visual Boy Advance supports Game Boy (Classic), Super Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and (of course) Game Boy Advance. It has several cool screen filters, supports cheats, record music, can take screen shots, capture save states with multiple slots, record AVI movies, and more. It's easy to use and it runs great on whatever speed your computer is. This version of the emulator is called “VisualBoyAdvance-M” (or Visual Boy Advance Merged), which is a continued effort by others since the original Visual Boy Advance authors abandoned the emulator in 2005. This zip download also includes the screen filters (which are a separate download if you go to the official site).

BGB supports Game Boy (Classic), Super Game Boy, and Game Boy Color (doesn't support Game Boy Advance). I have BGB here because I think it's a good alternative to Visual Boy Advance. It's not as cluttered and the screen is nice and sharp.

Kega Fusion is the #1 Genesis emulator! In addition to Genesis it also emulates Sega CD, 32X, Sega CD+32X (it's the only emulator that supports this), Sega Master System, Game Gear, Sega SG-1000 and SC-3000. Like Gens, it has high compatibility and good speed.

Gens/GS is a version of the famous “Gens” emulator. The main goal of Gens/GS was to clean up the source code and combine features from various forks of Gens, as well as improving portability to other platforms. Gens/GS has a high compatibility rate and good speed. It also has many nice features including the usual screen renders, Sega CD support, and 32X support. It has a few neat features that Kega Fusion doesn't have.

Meka emulates Sega Master System (SMS), Game Gear, SG-1000 and SC-3000 (the last 2 are computers). It doesn't have a wide range of features as popular emulators do. It just has the necessities (i.e. save states), and it runs games very well. “Kega Fusion” over in my Genesis category plays Game Gear/SMS games too, but I think Meka does a much better job.

*Meka might alert your anti-virus the first time you open it. This download of Meka does not contain a virus! Meka just runs a quick scan to peak into the system to determine the best settings for you.

Offers good compatibility and is easy to use. It lacks the fancy features we're used to with PSX/N64 emulation, like high-res 3D rendering and such. But hey, it's better than nothing! Its compatibility isn't perfect so I recommend checking its compatibility list before trying out games.

ePSXe is a PSX emulator that takes advantage of the exciting plug-in system. It requires a good 3D card. Right now it is the best freeware PlayStation emulator available--that is, if you're patient enough to work with the plug-in system (it can be annoying). Remember, Pete's Plug-ins are the best for ePSXe! You can download a bundle of the best plug-ins further down.

Don't feel like fussing with ePSXe's plug-in system? Do you want a decent PSX emulator that just works out of the box and is friendly with slower computers? Then pSX is for you! It's a simple emulator; it doesn't have any of the fancy features and neato 3D rendering that ePSXe has.

Extras

Size: 236 KB - Both ePSXe and pSX need this in order to boot games. It's “Scph1001.bin”, the most common BIOS file. In most cases this is all you need.
*Download by right-clicking link and go to “Save Link As”. When saving, rename the “_ip” file extension to “zip”.

This is the first and best PlayStation 2 emulator. Great compatibility and nice speeds make this a must-try on fast machines! It can run just about any game, with some minor hiccups (mainly Tri-ace games). The BIOS is required in order to boot games, which you can download below. Game compatibility isn't perfect; I recommend going through its compabitility list.

This is a fast CPS1/2 emulator. It has many good features including netplay. The only drawback is that it generally only plays NeoGeo and Capcom games. However, I definitely prefer Kawaks over MAME for its many nifty features, especially its screen renders. It emulates Dungeons & Dragons arcade beautifully.

MAME is the most compatible and capable multiple arcade machine emulator. Over 3,000 classic arcade games are supported, and development continues actively. When compared to other emulators, it lacks some of the neat features that we're used to. What MAME is popular for is its extensive game compatibility. This version in particular is for 64-bit Windows. If you're not sure if you have 64-bit or 32-bit Windows, click here for directions. If you have 32-bit, download the version below.

Same exact version as MAMEUI64, but for 32-bit operating systems. That means if you're using Windows 7 32-bit or older versions of Windows. If you're not sure if you have 64-bit or 32-bit Windows, click here for directions. If you have 64-bit, download the version above.

Unfortunately, a lot of arcade ROMs that are readibly available in popular arcade ROM sites do not work with the latest version of MAME due to legacy reasons. So if you're having a lot of trouble trying to get games to work, this half decade old version of MAME from May 2007 should work better for you.

Outstanding TurboGrafx16/PC Engine emulator that features full HuCard, SuperGrafx, CD-ROM, Super CD-ROM and Arcade Card emulation! It is, however, a demo version which costs $19 US to register. This demo version is limited to 5 minutes of play time per session. MagicEngine is the #1 emulator for TG16 and TG16-CD (PCECD). Note that MagicEngine doesn't support running CD games from their ISO. You need to use Mednafen for that.

This is a good free alternative to MagicEngine. Ootake has good game compatibility with HuCard, SuperGrafx, CD-ROM, Super CD-ROM and Arcade Card emulation. It is a Japanese emulator translated to English so expect the language to be a little quirky. Note that Ootake doesn't support running CD games from their ISO. You need to use Mednafen for that.

Extras

This emulator has a good CPU timing, the sound is really good and it has Joystick support. I only have this emulator here for playing Makai Toushi Saga (the Final Fantasy Legend remake). Note that this emulator hasn't been updated in a long time. Mednafen (below) might have better game compatiblity. Although Oswan is much more user friendly than Mednafen.

This zip file contains Mednafen 0.9.36.3, MedGui 1.9.99.9.5, and the system card files for TurboGrafx16-CD games. I'll explain. To begin with, Mednafen is a multi-system emulator that supports Atari Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket Color, WonderSwan, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, NES, SNES, Virtual Boy, PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 CD, PC-FX, Game Gear, Genesis, Sega Master System, and PlayStation 1 (buggy, alpha state). Mednafen is command line based so it requires a frontend GUI to be usable. The best frontend seems to be “MedGui”; I have that in the zip. And the sole reason that I am including Mednafen on this page is because it's the only emulator that lets you play TG16-CD games from ISOs (CUE/ISO/WAV to be exact; not MP3). I have the BIOS system card files included in the zip so you can boot them. You open Mednafen by clicking “MedGui.exe”. This is the 64-bit version. If you're not sure if you have 64-bit or 32-bit Windows, click here for directions. If you have 32-bit, download the version below.

The great Snes9x that we all know and love for the PC had been ported to Android, instantly becoming the best Android SNES emulator! Although personally, I'm still using Yongzh's SNES emu just because I like the universal GUI across all his releases.
*Particularly, if you want to transfer SRM/SAV save files from PC to Android or vice versa, they don't work on Snes9x EX. Yongzh's emulators, however, do work with them.
*Don't have access to the Play Store? You can download Snes9x EX here.

The .EMU series of emulators covers Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, NeoGeo, NES, Genesis (MD), Saturn, and TurboGrafx16 (PCE). They're great emulators with lots of features. I recommend enabling vibration on button press. Snes9x EX above is by the same people.
*Don't have access to the Play Store? You can download these emulators from the homepage.

You might have come across MAME4Droid in the Android market. It's a good emulator, but Final Burn Alpha is way better! It has great performance. Particularly, I've tested my Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom/ Shadow Over Mystara ROMs with both of them and they play fine.

The fastest and most compatible Nintendo DS emulator! The catch is that it has a pretty hefty price of $8 US. If you refuse to pay and you want a free emulator, there's nds4droid. Although DraStic is far superior over nds4droid.

This is a mass system emulator with support for PS1, SNES, NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Arcade (MAME), NeoGeo Pocket Color, Virtual Boy, Genesis (plus Sega CD), SMS, PC Engine/TurboGrafx16 (plus CD), Wonderswan Color, Nintendo DS, Atari Lynx, and arcade (MAME). What's really awesome is that RetroArch supports several systems not supported in the other emulators. Even the Game Gear emulation is accurate (other emulators crop the screen). However its GUI is not very user friendly and I've found that some games aren't supported.
• The PS1 emulator requires the BIOS.
• For TG16-CD games, make sure the BIOS is called “syscard3.pce” (if it isn't already).
• For Sega CD games, rename the BIOS files to “bios_CD_E.bin” (Europe), “bios_CD_U.bin” (US), and “bios_CD_J.bin” (Japan).
• If your Sega CD/TG16-CD game has MP3 tracks, you need to convert them to WAV and edit the CUE sheet to change the tracks to WAV. I explain how to do this here.
• All BIOS files for PS1, TG16-CD, and Sega CD need to be placed in the main root folder of your ROMs/ISOs (you can set the folder in config).
*Don't have access to the Play Store? You can download Retroarch here.

Yongzh is kind of the father of Android video game emulation by being the first to release the first set of emulators for Android. Yongzh's emulators were removed from the market so you can only grab them online - or right there! Despite their age, these emulators still run very well and in some cases considered better than newer emulators. My Yongzh Bundle contains the following: Ataroid (Atari emulator), GameBoid (GBA emulator), GBCoid (Game Boy Color emulator), Gearoid (Game Gear emulator), Gensoid (Genesis emulator), Nesoid (NES emulator), SNesoid (another SNES emulator), Psx4droid (PlayStation 1 emulator), and N64oid (N64 emulator). The PS1 emulator requires the BIOS; it's buggy so don't put a lot of faith in it.
*A nice bonus with Yongzh's emulators is that SRM/SAV save files from PC emulators can be transferred to them. You just need to rename them to SAV.

MacScene.net contains all the available video game emulators for Mac! It has a pretty active commnity, too.
• You might also want to check Bannister.org because that guy alone made the majority of the available video game emulators for Mac. In other words, he's like the father of video game emulation on Mac.
• For some reason, MacScene.net doesn't have a PS1 emulator posted. There's PCSX-Reloaded.

Free burning software that supports ISO and CUE sheet writing. It's great for ripping your CD based games into ISO format. It's also great for burning Sega CD games, TurboGrafx16-CD games, PSX games, or any other CD based game you've downloaded.
*Your virus/malware detection might flag ImgBurn as malware for having 'opencandy'. It's not really malware because it's not malicous. All that it does is access the Internet during the install to show you ads. That's it. It does not install malware/adware or do anything else mischievous.

Great utility for generating CUE sheets for Sega Saturn and Sega CD games you downloaded that did not include a CUE sheet. It was designed for Saturn games only but it happens to work with Sega CD games nicely.

An awesome free batch music converter. Instantly convert one or more music files of any format to WAV or MP3. This program is great for instantly converting Sega CD and TurboGrafx16 audio tracks to WAV for burning.